The 10 Best Star Wars Games Ever Made

Star Wars games have been around forever. Ever since the original Star Wars vector arcade game, people have wanted to re-experience the movies in videogame form. Below we’ve listed the top ten best Star Wars games ever made. If you consider yourself a Star Wars fan and like games, these are must plays.

#1 TIE Fighter

The sequel to X-Wing didn’t just improve upon the original in nearly every way, it went down in history as the greatest Star Wars game made and no game has yet to come even close to topping it. In X-Wing if you failed one part of mission, you were screwed. TIE Fighter fixed this by including optional mission objectives where if you messed up you weren’t completely out of luck. But do enough of these optional missions and the Emperor himself will notice you and invite you into his secret club complete with cool tattoos! Even the graphics received a slight upgrade from X-Wing, and Lucasarts’ iMUSE sound system was at well use with its famous dynamic soundtrack. TIE Fighter is in desperate need of a 21st Century face-lift and re-release for modern computers so a whole new generation can experience what Star Wars gaming was meant to be.

#2 Knights of the Old Republic

A close second to TIE Fighter is definitely Bioware’s original Knights of the Old Republic. Based in the popular setting of the Dark Horse Comics series from the 90s, the game was set some 5,000 years before the Original Trilogy and it gave you the chance to be a Light or Dark Side Jedi in an adventure that Star Wars fans still talk about to this day. The Obsidian-developed sequel didn’t quite reach the original’s level of greatness mostly due to it shipping in an unfinished state.

#3 Jedi Knight II: Jedi Outcast

We went back and forth between including the original Jedi Knight (Dark Forces II) in the slot over Jedi Knight II, and while both are excellent games; the sequel earns a slight edge due to its more advanced engine. You see, Dark Forces II came out at a time when 3D in PC games was still in its infancy, and despite slick live-action cutscenes; the game was really outdone by its sequel that came around when the Quake III engine allowed the gameplay to shine and not be encumbered by a clunky engine. Jedi Knight II remains the premiere Star Wars FPS.

#4 Republic Commando

A close second to the Jedi Knight games is the excellent and under-appreciated Republic Commando. The game featured Rainbow Six-style squad FPS action with four very memorable Clone Commandos. The game was set between Episodes II and III and ended in a massive cliffhanger that hasn’t yet been resolved (hopefully it will be in the Clone Wars series). While a sequel titled Imperial Commando was at one time teased, it never materialized.

#5 Star Wars Galaxies

After all of the bugs, complaints, server crashes, outsourced CSRs, Jedi exploits, and PvP griefing, SWG was still one of the best Star Wars MMO’s available. Even the new TOR doesn’t have the seamless and complex gameworld that SOE put together with SWG. Unfortunately, by creating a world without zones, they also created a truck load of problems. Everything from a missing pair of pants, to an entire house could randomly disappear. And even after all of the bullsh*t netcode glitches and constant nerfs, the players stayed. No other game let you chase your player bounty across the galaxy, utilize dirty tactics to kill Jedi, and make a living from selling weapons, armor, or medical supplies. PVP base raids took precision and skill, and even the exploited Jedi Masters weren’t safe from skilled Bounty Hunter gank squads. That was of course until SOE rolled out the Combat Upgrade and NGE, disowning half of its player base overnight.

#6 Dark Forces

Dark Forces is the predecessor to the Jedi Knight games and was the Star Wars answer to Doom. Before Kyle Katarn was a Jedi; he stole the original Death Star plans for the Alliance. That awesome story coupled with the still fun gameplay of old school engine earns the original Dark Forces a spot on this list.

#7 The Force Unleashed

Don’t listen to the haters. The Force Unleashed is the best Star Wars game released since Knights of the Old Republic. Featuring a canon story set between Episodes III and IV, the game tells the official story of just how the Rebellion was started and it will actually change the way you look at not only the Alliance in the original trilogy, but Vader as well.

#8 Star Wars: Empire at War

Star Wars strategy games have a sordid history. From the Master of Orion-inspired flop Rebellion to the best-forgotten Force Commander, there have been some real stinkers. Even Ensemble (of Age of Empires fame) tried their hands at it with Battlegrounds. But it wasn’t until Petroglyph (the remnants of the great Westwood Studios) brought out Empire at War that Star Wars finally had a worthy entry to the strategy genre.

#9 Star Wars: Battlefront II

Capitalizing on the popularity of the large-scale team first-person shooters brought on by DICE’s Battlefield series; the two Battlefront games took that concept into the Star Wars universe. Both games are great, but the sequel adds a lot more to the mix including space combat and it still has a pretty healthy online community to this day. While the original Xbox version can no longer be played online, you can snag the PC version for about $20 and still find plenty of action.

#10 LEGO Star Wars The Complete Saga

The LEGO Star Wars games (and the Indy, Batman, and Harry Potter ones) are just plain fun for everyone. The Complete Saga takes you through all six movies, and feature hours of playability and content. You really can’t go wrong with the LEGO Star Wars series if you’re a Star Wars fan.